“I remember hearing The Greatest View on the radio and buying Diorama because he showed me you could have these soaring orchestral arrangements with super heavy riffs and talk about teen angst. They were grungy, gritty raw but so ambitious and made these amazing camp videos.

The catalyst for their fruitful writing sessions for her much-anticipated second album The Golden Echo was the legendary American composer and arranger Van Dyke Parks.

The revered musician has been working with Johns mostly on string arrangements since Silverchair’s third record Neon Ballroom and invited Kimbra and Johns to be his guest vocalists for the Adelaide Festival concert An Evening With Van Dyke Parks last year.

Their friendship blossomed during the three days of rehearsals and sparked a magical creative partnership.

“He is such a sweetheart and so stoked to work with people. Man, he is the spirit of creativity, just someone who loves to create who believes we can go where we have never been before.

“It felt like being a little kid in the playground conjuring your own weird little world and it’s not like that with everybody.

“Some people have a very different attitude to making music.”

Kimbra was already on the radar of discerning music makers and fans courtesy of her debut album Vows when Gotye released their duet Somebody That I Used To Know.

The stratospheric success of that song and its stop-motion viral video blew doors already opened to her off their hinges.

Hence the guest list of musicians and collaborators lending their talents to songs on The Golden Echo is rather impressive.

In addition to Johns and Parks, Muse’s Matt Bellamy plays guitar on the musical riot that is the first single 90s Music, the Mars Volta’s Omar Rodriguez-Lopez guests on Carolina, John Legend on Nobody But You, R & B singer Bilal on Be Everlovin’ Ya.

“That’s funny. I grew up always hanging out with guys and my whole band is dudes,” she says.

“But at the same time, it’s just work and when I enter that space with someone, gender goes out the window, it’s all about having a connection with them.

“These people came and played a character in the music movie I was making.”

The album’s original title was Narcissus Golden Echo after the daffodil she saw in a dream. It symbolism resonated with her strongly in terms of the album’s kaleidoscope of sounds.

“I think a golden echo is the symbol of an idea of there being an echo in life that calls you out and away from the reflection of yourself, that centres you more in the world,” she says.

“Your record album is a moment to make a statement and I didn’t want to make a statement about being on the road.”

If Vows announced Kimbra’s musical eccentricities, Golden Echo the goalposts of what is considered pop music now even further apart.

Her flamboyant songs still adhere to the basic premises of rhythm and melody but the production, instrumentation and arrangements defy comparison with anyone in the top 10 right now.

And that was her intention.

Being herself ... Kimbra refuses to be a slave to musical fashion. Picture: SuppliedSource: Supplied

“I made a conscious decision to not listen to any current music or check in with what was trending,” she says.

“I wanted to keep it about the sounds I could tap into.

“I still want to make pop music that resonates but not necessarily what Pitchfork likes right now or the coolest record in the world.

“And I trust the fans will move with me.”

Creatively soaring but pragmatically anchored to reality, Kimbra knows that whatever happens with Golden Echo and its singles, it would be impossible to match the phenomenal success she and Wally de Backer (Gotye) enjoyed, whether via sales or awards.

They have talked about the possibility of doing another duet but both know the chances of that creative lightning striking twice are slim to none

“There’s no way to repeat that moment in history,” she says.

“You just keep pushing forward and I use it as an incentive to keep being ambitious, to jump in and go wild in the studio, to be fearless.

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